[Access Lunch] Reading for this Week

Wed Mar 31 11:56:18 EDT 2021

Sara, thank you for sharing this important perspective.

I apologize that I did not use the term “cyborg” with the care that it
necessitates when introducing readings that take up controversial language.
To respond to your message, I did some research on the ways “cyborg” has
been used to describe people with disabilities. As you mentioned, the term
has been used to reduce people with disabilities into the ways they are
enabled by technology. These reductions, along with the term’s propensity
in science fiction, feed stereotypes that technology may “fix” disability
and that people with disabilities are subhuman, in particular, lacking
warmth and human complexity.

For others, like me, who could use more education on the topic, here are
some resources I found that nuance the potential harms and limitations of
reclaiming cyborg terminology. Importantly, this discussion is complex and
ongoing and some disabled activists have made clear that cyborg is not a
term nondisabled people should use in reference to people with disabilities.

   - Cyborgs, Cripples and iCrip: Reflections on the Contribution of
   Haraway to Disability Studies
   <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137023001_6> by Donna
   Reeve talks about why the cyborg figure hasn't been more utilized in
   disability studies.
   - The Cyborg and the Crip chapter in Feminist, Queer, Crip
   <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=F4X6yaiCNOcC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=alison+kafer&ots=n8tOGO2UOe&sig=nA24II_goyKkeAvN1s3Okla_Va8#v=onepage&q=alison%20kafer&f=false>
   by Alison Kafer has this great quote in reaction to Donna Haraway’s Cyborg
   Manifesto: "The "cyborg" concept thus serves to perpetuate binaries of
   pure/impure, natural/unnatural, natural/technological; rather than breaking
   down boundaries, it buttresses them" (109).
   - The intro of Building the Normal Body: Disability and the
   Techno-makeover <https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/125966> by
   Emily Smith Beitiks similarly breaks down how usage of "cyborg" has been
   traditionally ableist, from Haraway to Chris Hables Gray to John
   Hockenberry.
   - The Dawn of the 'Tryborg'
   <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/opinion/the-dawn-of-the-tryborg.html>
   by Jillian Weise, where she argues only disabled people should call
   themselves cyborgs since only disabled people depend on integrated
   technology.

These different essays, perspectives, and bits of lineage are so important,
and I hope we can continue discussing this nuance as a group. For instance,
while Jillian Wiese uses a bionic leg and strongly identifies with the term
cyborg, Laura Forlano, who uses an automatic insulin pump for type 1
diabetes does not. In both of their firsthand testimony, these authors
detail the labor it requires to make their assistive technology work. I
recognize that Zoltan Istvan’s controversial article is a troubling
counterpoint to their perspectives, as it is 1) a blatant misunderstanding
of the capacity of assistive tech, and 2) an insidious ideology that has
influenced policy. In pairing it with Wiese and Forlano, I was hoping to
draw out this historical tension between techno-solutionism and disability
rights in our Thursday discussion. I apologize for not initially
characterizing the harm perpetuated by Zoltan’s ideology -- especially as
it concerns the term “cyborg.”

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 4:06 PM Sara Kingsley <skingsle at cs.cmu.edu> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I request that we not refer to everyone living with medical assistive
> technology as a "cyborg." For many of us, it is extraordinarily derogatory,
> ableist, and those terms have been used by non-disabled people to harass
> and commit acts of violence against disabled people. I also ask that we
> consider reading about the history of diabetes technology, the broader
> community whose lives depend on it before engaging in a discussion of type
> 1 diabetes.
>
> Thank you, Sara
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 6:33 PM Franchesca Spektor <
> fspektor at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> For this week's reading, we'll explore the cyborg as the supposed
>> "pinnacle" of assistive technology. Can cyborg technology eliminate
>> disability? Who can afford to become a cyborg? How do these questions come
>> to influence products and policy?
>>
>> These first two essays discuss the frictions of cyborg embodiment, from
>> the lived experience of disability:
>>
>>    - "Common Cyborg" <https://granta.com/common-cyborg/> by Jillian
>>    Weise, a poet, performance artist, and activist. (I've shared this essay
>>    before but I just love it so much).
>>    - "The Danger of Intimate Algorithms" by Laura Forlano, a scholar and
>>    design researcher.
>>
>> If you have time for it, this last essay is a short Vice article from
>> several years ago, which argues that the US should invest into exoskeletons
>> rather than accessible environments.
>>
>>    - "In the Transhumanist Age, We Should be Repairing Disabilities, Not
>>    Sidewalks"
>>    <https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3pdm/in-the-transhumanist-age-we-should-be-repairing-disabilities-not-sidewalks>
>>    by Zoltan Istvan, an attempted politician and president of the
>>    Transhumanist Party.
>>
>> I'm really looking forward to our discussion and hearing everyone's
>> thoughts!
>>
>> *As always, join us at Accessibility Lunch on Thursday, April 1st at 1:30
>> PM EST here. *To access the meeting, please use this Zoom conference
>> link:
>> https://cmu.zoom.us/j/95170225799?pwd=UkhZWmwwUkp6M3BMR1dsM0taNjNnZz09
>>
>> Thanks so much, and see y'all soon ~
>>
>> - Franky
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Accessibility-lunch mailing list
>> Accessibility-lunch at lists.andrew.cmu.edu
>> https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/accessibility-lunch
>>
>
>
> --
> *Sara Kingsley*
> PhD student, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
> School of Computer Science
> Carnegie Mellon University
> Pittsburgh, PA, USA
> website: www.sarakingsley.info
> Pronouns: she/her
> Create Safe Spaces for Students, Denounce Ableist Language:
> https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html
>
> *want to chat about research, projects or coursework?*
> please feel free to schedule time to meet with me at this link, thank you:
> https://calendly.com/sarakingsley/sara-schedule
> <https://calendly.com/sarakingsley/schedule>
>
>
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